On the weekend of May 17th, the Pokémon TCG Pocket tournament scene had its largest tournament ever: the Pocket Royale, which had an incredible $10,000 prize pool distributed among the Top 96 out of 2,829 competing players. Since my first article covering the Celestial Guardians expansion, multiple new high-tier archetypes have been discovered to challenge the previous format’s best archetype, Darkrai/Giratina, for spots at the top. Giratina ex‘s dominance has continued, but new partners with it have taken up over half of the share that used to be fulfilled almost exclusively by Darkrai.
The metagame that emerged at the top tables also showcased the enormous potential of counter archetypes in a relatively centralized format, playing into the weaknesses of Giratina ex and the other big Basic Pokémon ex that rose above the limited competition they had before. This article will provide an overview of the tournament’s most popular and successful decks, and which anti-meta deck took advantage of that metagame to ultimately win the Pocket Royale as this format nears its conclusion, when Ultra Beasts join the game in this week’s expansion.
After upgrading your membership, you will see the rest of the article, and an audio recording of this article, narrated by Andy Hyun: 
You must have a Premier Membership or greater to see the rest of this post. If you don't have a Premier account, you can Sign Up for one here.
You must have a Premier Membership or greater to see the rest of this post. If you don't have a Premier account, you can Sign Up for one here.